After her record-breaking run at the Winter Olympics this March, multisport athlete Oksana Masters has her name inscribed in yet another sports history book.This week, skiers, cyclists and biathletes ESPYS Nominated As ESPN confirmed to SELF, in the Best Athlete, Women’s Sports category, marking the first time a Paralympic athlete (male or female) has nodded on the Best Athlete field.
Masters, who was SELF’s digital cover star in February, is honored alongside gymnast Sunisa Lee, swimmer Katie Ledecky, and basketball player Candace Parker. She also earned her two more nominations for her ESPYS in 2022. This includes Best Olympian, Women’s Sport (alongside Lee, Ledecky, track and field star Allison Her Felix) and Best Athlete, Women’s Sport (alongside swimmer Jessica Long, snowboarder Brena). will be Huckabee, soccer player Kate Ward). This is her eighth nomination for the Masters in the Best Athlete with a Disability, Women’s Sports category since she was first nominated in 2014.
When SELF caught up with the Masters after the announcement, she said she was overwhelmed by the news and wasn’t quite sure how to put into words what the historic nomination meant to her.
“This is a huge victory and a monumental moment not only for me as the first ever male/female nominee in this category, but for all Paralympic athletes, adaptive athletes and the disability community at large.” she told SELF.
Masters, a six-time Paralympian, will deliver a history-making performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She won medals in all seven of her events and won gold in sprint her biathlon, individual biathlon and mixed relay her cross country. This additional hardware brings her Paralympic medal total to 14, making her the most awarded U.S. Winter Paralympian ever.
bring her too total She is also a Summer Olympian, so she has a maximum of 17 Paralympic medals. After winning her bronze medal in rowing in London in 2012, she won her first summer gold medal in both cycling her events this summer in Tokyo.
As she told SELF in February, Masters believes the visibility and representation of Paralympians has increased, but says there is “a long way to go”.
“It’s really cool [Paralympians] “I am a legitimate athlete and I am Team USA,” she said in her cover story. It’s not their life story that drove them down the Paralympic road rather than the Olympic road.”
But the ESPYS nomination is another step in the right direction, as she told SELF after the announcement.
“I cannot express how grateful I am to ESPN for acknowledging me as an athlete,” she says. “They broke the glass ceiling and redefined what it means to be an athlete and what it looks like.”
The winners of the ESPYS Awards, which will air live on ABC on July 20th, will be chosen by fan votes.fan vote available here Until July 17th.
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